Vigilante justice trial continues

A trial is expected to continue Wednesday for two men accused of meting out vigilante-type justice to teenagers who broke into one defendant’s home.

Vincent Bosca and Allen Brontkowski, both 46, are accused of luring four teens to Bosca’s Sterling Heights home on June 13, 2011 in an attempt to learn who was responsible for a break-in days earlier.

The men are accused of illegally detaining the youths, binding them with duct tape and threatening to harm them if they didn’t provide the information. After about two hours, the youths were allowed to call their parents and were released.

Bosca and Brontkowski are charged with four counts each of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and unlawful imprisonment; and one count each of extortion and possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony. Bosca also faces drug charges as prosecutors maintain he possessed more marijuana than his status as a medical marijuana caregiver justified.

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On Tuesday, defense attorneys unsuccessfully sought the dismissal of all charges against Bosca and Brontkowski. The motion for a directed verdict of acquittal after the prosecution rests its case is a routine request in most criminal trials. The motion was denied by Macomb County Circuit Judge David Viviano.

As they have since the trial began, the defendants claimed they intended to make a citizens’ arrest and were within their rights. “The only information he was trying to get was who was involved (in the previous incident),” said Geoffrey Walker, the lawyer for Bosca. “My client clearly had a right to detain these young men.”

Brontkowski’s attorney, Robert Elsey, argued the defendants intended only to frighten the youths into giving up the identities of the burglars in the previous incident.

“Whatever was done to these kids was done to extract information,” he said.